Our sweet little girl turned 1 year old on June 20. Man, did this year every go by so quickly?!

After about 10.5 hours of non-progressing labor, Linden Paige entered in to the world via C-Section on a Friday night at 6:54 p.m. at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida…weighing 8 pounds 1 oz. and measuring 21 in. long. Our labor and delivery nurses were excellent and my OB was the attending that night at the hospital, so Dr. S delivered Linden. It was most certinaly love at first sight. Hearing her cry for the first time was one of the best sounds I had ever heard in my life!

My first time holding Linden in the OR/OB recovery room

Linden wearing the “Jesus Loves Me” braclet from Grandma & Grandpa E.

Linden just home from the hospital

Since her birthday fell on a Saturday this year, we celebrated with a Ladybug themed birthday bash at the park on her actual birthday. Many family members traveled from out of state to help make our sweet girl’s day even more special! Uncle Daniel, Grandma Nagel & Grandpa John, Oma, Great-Great Uncle Eddie, Aunt Erin, GG, Pop-Paw & Grandma Shell! Nonnie and Pop-Pop also drove over from Boulder for the festivities. What a blessed little girl to have so many people that love her and were able to travel!

The weather was a little sketchy most of the day, mostly wind, so many of my cute little decorations had to stay in the bag, oh well! I was just so relieved that the rain held off and everyone was able to have fun eating and playing in the park.

Linden was so excited to see so many familiar faces and she walked around telling people “hi” and waving. She def. had a great time swinging, running around, going down the slide, riding the ladybug and getting to demolish her cupcake!

After the party was over we went back to the house to open presents – everyone was so generous and we have a little stash of toys put away to pull out throughout the year.

Dear Linden,

Happy 1st Birthday! Your Daddy and I love you so much and have been so blessed to have you in our family this past year – our hearts are truly full from the love and joy that you have brought to us.

I pray for you every night when I put you to bed. The themes that I pray over you daily include:

• That you would come to know Jesus as your Savior at a young age
• That you would be faithful and obedient to walk with the Lord throughout all of your days
• For your worth and image to be found in Jesus alone
• For your purity
• For you to see and love others as Jesus does
• For God to be preparing a loving and godly husband for you

It has been a joy to watch your personality and character develop already. You started saying “hi” to people and waving when you were about eight months old – your friendliness has put smiles on many peoples faces and has blessed them.

Your disposition this first year has been very easy going, joyful and playful. I think we have been spoiled by having such an easy baby for our first (maybe only!) child. You began sleeping through the night consistnetly when you were just 3 weeks old and you have been a good eater from the start.

You have consistently been in the 90-95th percentile for your height in 50-60th percentile for your weight. At your 1 year appointment you were 23 pounds, 2 ounces (85th percentile), were 30.25 inches tall (90th percentile) and your head size is in the 40th percentile. Dr. D. noted that your verbal and fine motor skills are that of an 18 mo. old and encouraged Mommy & Daddy to start discipling you, because you understand more than what we think you do! You are certinaly not naughty (yet!), but you have begun to push a few limits with your mobility and reach. You started walking at 10 months and were running by 11 months!

You love books! Your favorite book, by far, is 10 Little Ladybugs. We read it almost daily…it was the inspiration for your 1st Birthday party

Your favorite activity is swimming! We first took you when you were almost 3 months old and we have been going every Saturday to our rec center since you were 6 months old. You have already outgrown 3 swimsuits – phew! You like to splash, kick and flirt with the life guards. You also always make a friend when we are at the pool, who is usually about 6-9 years old. I pray that you continue to make friends easily and minister to the people God brings along your path.

To date you say momma, da-da, me, duck, hi, baby. You also like to put together jibberish phrases. Daddy and I enjoy making up what we think you are saying, because you always sound very passionate when you do this!

We can’t wait to see what this next year holds and I will always hide our precious memories from your first year in my heart.

Much love,

Mommy & Daddy

There have been a couple of house projects that Ryan and I have embarked on recently…2 of the more major ones have been hiring a company to re-paint the exterior of the house and then enlisting the awesome expert help of Ryan’s parents, Dave and Mary Ann, to re-do the grass in our back yard.

The house before….

And after….

And my flowers that I planted around the tree in our front yard…

Me pulling weeds in our backyard (Before)…well, the entire backyard was pretty much weeds…

After Dave had used the sod cutter to cut out all of the old ‘grass’ (aka, weeds)…and after Mary Ann, Ryan and Dave hauled the old out…

Workin’ hard for (no) ‘da money

I want to help!

Moving the new sod to the backyard to be layed down

The finished product!

Linden giving the  new yard her approval

On Monday I checked off one of my goals for the year, to run a 5K race. Well…I guess you could say I doubly checked it off by running the Bolder Boulder annual 10K Memorial Day race with my fablously dear friend from childhood, Kristin.  This first picture is of our race heat…the announcer said that there were 54,000 runners that day – I have no idea how many heats there were, but they placed the heats based on how fast/slow you would run the race. We were in a medium running heat, and we almost ran fast enough to be in the heat above ours.

I ran a few 5Ks when I was in college, but the Bolder Boulder is BY FAR the most entertaining and exciting race i have been a part of. There was live music/bands playing along the route every .3 miles and a lot of runners get dressed up (like the Smurf runners at the right), which makes the race just that much more entertaining.

A lot of the race route takes you through a few older Boulder neighborhoods and the sidewalks are lined with residents who are BBQing/partying in their drive way, cheering you on and offering you various temptations, like marshmallows, shots of liquor and bacon. It was such a hoot!

Because the race started so early, and the weather was questionable, we decided that Ryan would stay home with Linden, which left Kristin’s husband, Mike, to be our fan club and carrier of all our stuff. I haven’t gotten the pictures from Kristin & Mike yet, but I did steal these from the race photographer site (naughty, I know) and the Denver Post.  I am pretty sure this picture was taken at CU’s Folsom Field (their football stadium) as we were doing our final stretch to the finish line (that’s me in the red shorts and black shirt w/ the pink)…it was a pretty awesome experience to run in to the stadium that was filled with thousands of people cheering you on. I can only imagine how Olympians feel! After us amature runners finished, the Professional and Olympic runners ran the course…the winner of the men’s heat set a World Record, running the 6.2 miles in just over 27 min! I think I was only headed to mile 3 at the 27 min. mark, haha.

I had a great time and cannot wait for next year

Here is an overview of CU’s Folsom Field where we finished the race…

It is so hard to believe that Linden will be 11 months old on Wednesday! To think that this time last year I was livin’ large and pregnant, anticipating Linden’s birth and our planned move to Denver.

We took Linden to have her 1 year pictures taken (a month early, I know) so that we can have some printed in time for the big 1 year birthday bash she will be having… ladybug style My sweet co-worker Renee does photography on the side and was gracious enough to provide her wonderful services…I am posting a few as a preview here.

We actually went to see Dr. D. last Thursday after Linden woak up from her nap with a 102 temp. Turns out that she had a sinus infection…she had been sneezing and itching her eyes, so I wondered if something in the spring air was causing some allergy problems. She weighed in at 21 pounds, 14 oz. They did not take her height, but she was 30 in. tall at her 9 month appointment, so I imagine she is around 31-32 in. tall now.

Linden’s latest include taking her first steps on Mother’s Day (awwww, how ironicly cute, eh?) and getting BOTH of her top teeth in over this past weekend. Her new word is “duck” and still says hi, mamma, dadda. She has an infectious laugh and it cracks Ryan and I up when we really get her laughing hard (usually when we make faces and come at her, bounce her on the bed, or Ryan helps her “run”).   She is eating more and more table foods all of the time, and I think those new front teeth will really help!

The next couple weeks (ok, 6) will be very busy ones around our house. On Wednesday an exterior painting crew will ascend on our home for 3 days, which we are super excited about. Our house is 10 years old and still has the orgional paint on it, so it is in need of some freshening up. I will try to post some before and after shots this week. On Friday afternoon, my Grandpa Hopper and Georgia are coming from Texas to visit us – Horray! A week from today (Memorial Day) my friend Kristin and I are running the Bolder Boulder 10 K…I wanted to run at least one 5K this year to get back in to shape and take part in the out-door/in shape/active Colorado lifestyle, but I went a little crazy and made my first race 6.2 miles. Dear Lord, help me! Also coming up in the next weeks are us re-doing our back yeard, a marriage resort retreat, Ryan’s b-day, Linden’s b-day 2 days later (with a ton of family from out of town…Ryan jokes it’s like our wedding again with all the family!), Father’s Day the next day, my Dad/Step-Mom visiting for 4 days, the wonderful Sampson’s visiting from Cali and then we head to Wamego for 4th of July, good ol’ fashioned small KS town style. Phew! I think we’re a little crazy…stay tuned for pics and updates of all!

 

How cute is this?! Ryan showed me this yesterday and I just had to share. Enjoy.

 Here is where it came from

I don’t have time to write a lot right now, but I wanted to post some pictures and a little on what we’ve been up to…so here it is in Type A bulleted format

• * Ryan’s sister, Erin, flew in to Denver last Friday for her first 3 week visit while her hubby, Steve, is at a 15-week Air Force TDY training in North Carolina
• *I’m going to be an Aunt!!! Erin and Steve are expecting their first child in October, which she revealed publically in her latest blog entry - as we say around our house…”HORRAY!” Erin and Steve will make wonderful parents and Ryan and I are totally pumped to become an uncle & aunt

* Last weekend Denver area got hit with what people here call a “Spring Blizzard” … we got about 3 feet of wet snow. It has been in the mid 70’s since Monday, almost all of the snow is gone and our grass is now green. Thank you Lord for the mositure and what was, hopefully, the last I will see of snow for months and months.

 

* Erin brought a sweet little dress, headband and shoes for Linden with her. She is wearing them in the picture with the little chair (that my Grandpa Hopper made for me when I was little). We actually already had the sweater that matched the little dress & headband, fun!

* I am getting ready to run in a 4 mile race the 1st Saturday in May with my friend, Kristin. We are then hoping to run the10K in the Bolder Boulder at the end of May. The past couple weeks have felt good and I am starting to think that I could actually be ready for the 10K.

* This week I have started hand making the invitations for Linden’s 1st birthday party…our theme is ladybugs and I am having a lot of fun planning and putting things together. Linden’s favorite little book is called 10 Little Ladybugs, so that was our inspiration.

* We had a lovely Easter with Ryan’s parents and enjoyed getting to celebrate our Salvation through Christ with them. We went to church with Mom & Dad E.  and then they came over to our house for Easter Dinner. Ryan and I spent time talking about how to better remember and reflect on the entire Lent season next year and how we want to teach Linden about Jesus’ death and ressurection. Let me know if you have any good ideas about how to communicate these large and complex concepts to a 22 month old (I think that’s how old she will be around Easter next year – crazy!).

Here are just some other pictures of late….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My lovely sister-in-law, Erin. She has started a blog for their family today and I am so excited!  Even though this picture of us is almost 3 years old of us, it is one of my favorites of us from Erin & Steve’s wedding day on July 22, 2006 (which was just 1 day shy of Ryan and my 1st Anniversary).  So, welcome to the blogging world Erin!

I was looking through the pictures on our computer tonight and thought it would be fun to see what Ryan and I were up to this time a year ago…then I went back a couple more.

Last year, 2008…I was 30 weeks pregnant…Ryan and I were living in Wellington, Florida and we had spent a day in Delray Beach.

2007 – We were living in Wellington, Florida and Ryan’s parents had come to visit us from Denver – here we are at Palm Beach

2006…we were living in Fort Worth, Texas – man, we look so much younger, especially Ryan…I’m sure Linden and I have aged him

Cramming about 30 people in to our 2-bedroom apartment for a Easter potluck dinner. It was a truly great time with great friends.

Jana and her very cool Easter Bunny Cake

At Presley’s birthday dinner (Hi Sheri!)

Ryan working on the computer

Taking a walk in the park where we got engaged in 2004

About 4-5 years ago everyone I knew was getting engaged, furiously planning their wedding and honeymoons. We are now moving on to that next stage of parenthood and I feel like everyone around me (friends, co-workers, family members) are having babies – so exciting!

The other day I was having lunch with my friend Missy who leads our Young Married Sunday School class with her husband, Seth. Through our converation we laughed and also seriously discussed several things about motherhood that we had not quite anticipated. One of them being how controversial some parenting and mothering topics are. Sure, you expect some differing opinions, but oh boy, people are passionate (including myself on a few choice topics!) I figure this stems from everyone having a different approach to how they raise their child(ren) and the (obvious) passion and desire everyone has to do a good job with such an enormous task. I mean, come on, who wants a wack kid?

So, here are some of the more controversial parenting topics that I have encountered and some links to a few things on the topics that I have seen. The link is not necessarily how I feel about the topic, although the one to my blog is

• Child birth - Should you be enduced at any point, or should you wait to go in to labor on your own, despite how far past your due date you go? Deliver at home, in a free-standing child birth center, at home? Epidural or natural birth? C-Section? Phew – loaded!
• Breast-feeding or bottle feed formula?
• What type of immunization schedule? Do you immunize at all?
• What type of schooling? Do you send your kid to preschool, or not and relish all of their pre-schooling years at home?
• Do both parents work outside of the home? This is not so much controversial, as I would say an interesting topic within Christ-following women circles.

There are surely more than this, but these are the ones that came up in conversation the other day. What else have you encountered as a parent that was a little more controversial than you bargened for?

Use code onefree to snag a free pink or blue nursing cover from UdderCovers.

They are out of their latte, yellow and green colors, so you probably would want to know if you are buying for a boy or a girl…Originally $32. I think this would make a great gift for a friend, or if you plan to nurse, it will come in very handy! I mostly used a blanket to cover myself in public, but around 5 months Linden started pulling the blanket off, so something like this would have been fantastic for discreetly nursing in public.